group show

Hot Water - Cold Water : Young art from Cuba

11.08 – 17.09.2005

Cuba is the story of endless riots and fight for independence. After four centuries of Spanish colonial rule, Cuba came under American domination at the turn of the century, and Havana became known as home for life-enjoying mobsters and illegal gambling. The revolution in 1959 brought communism and the, by then already reputed, Fidel Castro to power, and the country became an important symbolic player during the cold war.

Cuba is the country of utopias and melancolic dreams. While the export of sugar and tobacco stagnated during the American trade embargo, a generation of brilliant artists saw the light in the country’s art schools and academys. Few countries have like Cuba invested in art and culture in the attempt to define cultural peculiarity and national identity.

'Hot Water – Cold Water' depicts Cuba as the continued contrast between the East and the West, and as the focal point of the conflict between two of the 20th Century’s most important ideologies, communism and capitalism. With subtle humor and irony, the three artists point at the discrepancy between the loud rhetoric of the communist revolution and the austere Cuban every-day reality.Recently, interest in Cuba has increased remarkably, and Cuban artists are well-represented everywhere in the world on major exhibitions, lately with several contributions at the current Venice Biennale. With 'Hot Water – Cold Water' Galerie Mikael Andersen wishes to present its audience to a country under rapid change – and to contemporary art in a class of its own.

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